Tortured Spirits (9 page)

“What are you waiting for?” she said.

Jake unbuckled his belt and unsnapped his jeans, which he shed with awkward motion. He freed his erection from his underwear, and Maria looked down, smiling. Jake kissed her, the head of his penis probing her moist vagina. A low moan escaped her throat, and he inhaled the scent of her perfume. He gripped her buttocks, his fingers pressing her hard muscles.

Pulling herself on top of him with her knees squeezing his sides, she lowered herself onto his erection, and her moan grew louder. Jake felt hot membrane engulfing him, and he set one knee on the bed and lowered her onto her back. Then he penetrated her heat, and she arched her back and welcomed him.

He looked into her eyes, and she continued to smile, though his thrusts caused her to open her mouth wider and emit soft whimpers.

“I've wanted you inside me for so long,” Maria said. “You better not turn out to be a prick.”

Laughing, he thrust harder.

“I swear to God I'll kick your ass if you turn out to be a shit.”

Jake covered her mouth and she bit his flesh. When he jerked his hand back, it was her turn to laugh.

Her breath came out in rasps faster and louder, and he felt himself building to a climax.

“I don't have anything,” he said. No need to tell her he had used his only condoms on Jasmine.

Craning her neck, she glanced at her purse, which she had left on the bedside stand. With sweat forming on her features, she reached for it and retrieved three condoms adjoined to each other. The purse fell on the floor.

Jake grabbed the condoms from her, tore one foil pack open, and prepared to withdraw himself.

“Don't stop,” she said, almost squealing. “Please don't stop!”

Biting his lower lip, he pounded into her. Tears formed in her eyes, which widened with ecstasy. Jake clawed at the sheets, fighting the urge to come, and Maria rocked her hips against him and cried out. Feeling her hot fluid cascading over him, Jake grimaced with effort, pulled out, and fumbled with the condom. Maria continued to come, which only excited him more.

Pushing himself inside her again, he leaned close to her
face and grabbed her hair. She threw her head from side to side, small gasps escaping her lips as he rode her. When he could hold back no longer he groaned, and she pressed herself against him harder in a grinding motion. They came at the same time, and he collapsed panting beside her.

Maria drew one hand across Jake's sweaty chest. “That was great. It was also just a warm-up. If we die in an attempted prison break, I want to go to my grave knowing we gave it our all. Unrequited lust is for the birds.”

They took turns washing up in the bathroom, and Jake heard Maria speaking softly to Edgar. He lowered the lights, and she turned on the radio, found a Latin beat, and raised the volume. She climbed on top of him and they kissed, and then she worked her way down the length of his body, taking him inside her mouth.

Staring at the ceiling for the first time, Jake stifled a laugh: the room had come equipped with a ceiling mirror. Maria licked him to full mast, and he found himself thinking of Laurel but not out of lust. He remembered how she had used her psychic ability to meet his every physical need, a power so fulfilling he doubted its existence. The next morning, Laurel told him he had feelings for another woman: Maria.

Now Maria stroked him with one hand and worked him over with her tongue, not fulfilling his desires but challenging them. She crawled back up and straddled him, pulling his erect penis inside her. As she ground against him, Jake slid his hands over her stomach and cupped her breasts, and Maria seized his wrists.

She looked over her shoulder from time to time to where Jake knew she saw her reflection in the dresser mirror, and when she returned her attention to him he noticed a thrill in her eyes. Arching her back, she gazed at their reflections in the ceiling mirror and let loose the laughter Jake had suppressed.

Then she pinned his wrists to the bed and leaned forward, her hair whispering over his face. “You're under arrest.”

Jake didn't know if she was giving into a sexual fantasy or if she just fantasized about arresting him, but he managed to thrust deeper into her. Maria grunted in time with the music on the radio with a slight snarl on her lips. He tried to free his arms, but she forced them back down. Her hips slammed against him, and he feared she would do him damage. He saw an amused look in her eyes, as if belittling him.

Almost two years earlier, Kira Thorn had transformed into a spider creature and had straddled him in a bed this same size, and he had overpowered her even though she had eight limbs. He wasn't about to let Maria get the best of him now. With his heel planted on the mattress, he rolled her onto her back, reversing their positions, and held her wrists down as she had his. He maintained a steady rhythm, gradually moving faster, harder, and she wrapped her legs around his back. By the time she came, he experienced a tremor of pleasure followed by an explosive finish that left him gasping.

They lay side by side, regaining their breath, their bodies glistening with sweat despite the steady flow of air-conditioning. They took separate showers and crawled back into bed.

Maria traced the scars on Jake's face. “Are you going to tell me how you got these?”

“Another time.” Maria may have accepted the existence of zonbies due to overwhelming evidence and had come around to accepting Edgar had been transformed into a raven, but he doubted she was ready to learn about the mutant octopus god Avademe and its amphibious children.

“That's assuming we have more time.”

“Don't be so fatalistic. We'll be fine.”

“You really think so? We're breaking a political prisoner out of a jail called El Miedo on some Caribbean rock. We don't even know the people we're depending on for backup, and we could be facing an army.”

“We'll know when we get there if this thing is doable or not. If it isn't, we come home.”

“And then what about Edgar? And Joyce and Martin?”

Jake sighed. “Then we'll try to convince Miriam to help us.”

Maria rested her head on Jake's shoulder, and they slept.

Around 2:00 a.m., Jake opened his eye. Moonlight shone through the slats of the blinds. Maria stroked his penis and slid his hand between her legs, where he rubbed her wet spot. She spread her legs wide, and he knelt on his knees, then rolled her on her stomach. Looking over her shoulder at him, Maria raised her buttocks into the air, and he slid inside her once more. With one hand, she spread her cheeks apart, and Jake slammed into her. This time he felt in total control, and he waited until she had come twice before releasing himself. When he dropped beside her, a deep sleep took him.

Jake awoke with sunlight on his face. The space beside him on the bed was empty. “Maria?”

He got up and walked to the bathroom, where Edgar remained in his cage.

Shit.
“I guess it's just you and me, pal.”

Edgar squawked.

Jake showered and dressed, then washed his glass eye with cleaning solution. At least Maria had spared herself from witnessing that morning ritual. Standing at the bathroom sink, he inserted the eye into his empty socket and appeared whole again.

With his bag on one shoulder, Edgar's cage in one hand and the suitcase in the other, he exited the room. The bright sunlight made him wince, and morning heat beat down on him as he crossed the lot to the motel office.

Maria sat on the curb, two bags beside her. Smoke curled from the end of a cigarette between her fingers.

“I didn't know you smoked,” Jake said.

“I quit a long time ago. Some bad habits keep coming back.” She took a drag and exhaled. “Like you, I can have one without getting into trouble.”

“You didn't say good-bye this morning.”

“You were asleep. Did I hurt your feelings?”

Okay
… “No.”

“I had to go to the post office. I mailed the memory card from my camera with the footage of you and Miriam talking along with a note to my partner.”

Bernie Reinhardt,
Jake thought. A bit of a sad sack.

“If neither one of us comes home, I want my people to know what happened to me.”

He couldn't blame her. “I'll be right back.”

Leaving his suitcase at the curb, Jake carried Edgar into the office and checked out. When he returned, a white SUV idled in the lot, and Fernando loaded Maria's bags into its hatchback. A second SUV, this one silver, idled behind the first one. Jake threw his suitcase into the white SUV and carried Edgar over to the silver one. The tinted backseat window lowered, revealing Miriam. Maria joined Jake at the vehicle.

“Here are your itineraries.” Miriam handed a packet to each of them. “Fernando will take you to the airport.”

Jake rested the birdcage atop the SUV door. “What will you do with Edgar if neither one of us makes it back?”

“If my husband reaches Miami because of your efforts and you don't, I'll honor our deal. If Andre remains in El Miedo or worse, then your friend will remain as he is.”

“In that case, I have a request.” Jake handed her a business card. “If we fail, I want you to arrange for Edgar to be transported to this address.”

Miriam read the handwritten address on the back of the card. “His family?”

Jake nodded. “They don't have a clue. The son has seen him before. Tell them his name is Buddy.”

Miriam deposited the card in her purse.

Jake passed the shoulder bag through the window. “These are his clothes. There's birdseed in there, too. I give
him cooked meat once a day. Send my laptop and my gun to my office if necessary.” He stuck his fingers inside the cage and stared at the raven. “I guess this is it, partner.” He felt himself choking up. “Hopefully we'll see each other again soon.”

Edgar croaked.

Maria pressed her palm against the cage, and Edgar pecked at it. “Adios, amigo.”

Jake slid the cage sideways through the window, and Miriam set it beside her.

“Bring my husband to me,” Miriam said as the window slid up.

Jake and Maria got into the back of the white SUV.

Fernando drove forward. “Your flight departs in two and a half hours. Two and a half hours after that, you'll be on Pavot Island. We've rented a car for you. It's unlikely Malvado's police would bug the car just because you're foreigners, but don't rule out that possibility. The same applies to your resort, which is about half an hour from the airport. We got you a suite with separate bedrooms.”

During the drive to Miami International Airport, Maria sat in silence while Jake questioned Fernando about their destination.

Outside the airport, Fernando unloaded their bags and shook their hands. “Senor. Senorita. Good luck.”

“Gracias,”
Maria said.

Maria remained silent as they checked in and went through security.

“I'm starving,” Jake said. “How about some overpriced
coffee and breakfast before we take off?”

“Whatever you say.”

They located a restaurant and ordered bagels and coffee, which they both took black. Maria said nothing as they ate.

“Did I do something wrong?” Jake said between mouthfuls.

“No.”

“Because I thought we had a pretty good night. Isn't that what you wanted?”

“It's what I wanted last night. Today we're serving together overseas. I don't want any emotions getting in the way.”

“That's fine, but we can still talk to each other. We're not just fellow soldiers. We're partners and partners need to communicate. It's an essential survival mechanism.”

“You're right. I'm sorry. I'll try not to be such a bitch.”

Jake smiled. “Thank you.”

They boarded a narrow jet, and Jake noted stained seat cushions and old-fashioned seat belts. The aircraft took off only half full, and fifteen minutes later, he noticed Maria reading a dog-eared paperback.
Erika Long
appeared above the title
Stormy Sands,
and a man with long brown hair and a cocky expression stood behind a woman whose apparent fear masked her repressed desires, a pirate vessel floating in a cove behind them.

Maria turned to him. “What?”

“I never figured you for a romance reader.”

“Because I'm a cop? I read anything that's in print. The
Times,
the
Post,
the
Enquirer,
best sellers, cheap paperbacks. This one happens to be a classic of its genre.”

“You don't say?” Jake held one hand out. “May I?”

With a look of irritation, Maria handed the paperback to Jake, who flipped through the pages, which featured standard-sized text and denser paragraphs than he expected. When he reached the inside back cover he almost dropped the book.

New York Times
and
USA Today
best-selling author Erika Long is the creator of over 20 romance novels, including the High Seas trilogy and the award-winning
Love Runs Deep.
Erika is the winner of multiple literary awards, including eight from the Romance Writers of America, for which she served two terms as president, and two from
Romantic Times.
Erika grew up on Long Island, New York, graduated with honors from Vassar, and worked as an assistant editor at Random House before selling her first novel to Lilian Kane's Eternity Books. She enjoys sailing, skydiving, and horseback riding.